Two incumbents and two newcomers won Democratic nominations Tuesday to the Harrisburg school board.

Incumbents Danielle Robinson and Judd Pittman, and newcomers Brian Carter and Carrie Fowler, outlasted Richard Soto, James Thompson, Gerald Welch and Cory Williams to vie for a four-year seat in the general election.

Vote tallies are 1,928 for Robinson; 1,629 for Pittman; 1,561 for Carter; 1,559 for Fowler; 1,236 for Soto; 1,479 for Thompson; 879 for Welch and 1,448 for Williams.

Thompson, a former vice president of the board, was the only incumbent to lose a board seat.

Percel Eiland also won a Democratic nomination for a two-year seat on the school board. He ran unopposed in the primary.

The winners of the Democratic nominations often win in the general election as Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one.

This year's general election will determine who occupies five school board seats on the nine-member board.

None of the candidates with felonies in their backgrounds won Democratic nominations, avoiding a possible showdown with prosecutors if they won in the general election. State law prohibits felons from holding political office, according to Fran Chardo, Dauphin County's first assistant district attorney. Chardo had pledged to remove any winning candidate with a felony from office.

The board is facing a deadline next year to exit the state's recovery plan but the plan contains lofty goals of increasing test scores and improving a stubbornly-low graduation rate at the city's main high school.

The newly comprised school board also must decide next year whether to retain Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney or launch a search for a new leader after eight years.

City leaders have said the city's long-term financial recovery is tied to the success of the school district.